My mancrush is Tucker. Love that smooth swing. Tough to trade guys like him regardless of who else is in system. I'm biased when it comes to include him in trades, but even then I expect others are considering him "just a prospect" as if Astros will always have a hitting prospect with as much potential as him.
I think it would be virtually impossible to fall that much in love with a non-pitching prospect who hasn't even reached AA. Just way too many variables and hurdles he still has yet to conquer to just to make it, let alone excel. But I forgot... he is the next Ted Williams!
Nah, he just had a little meltdown. Single-error on a pickoff-wild pitch-walk-K-walk; then they pulled him at 30-something pitches.
I like him as a prospect but Tucker is not going to help us in the next 2 years, and Quintana could give the Astros a starting rotation with great balance from the left side as well as right side. He is only in single A. Quintana on the other hand is under control for 4 years. To get talent you gave to give up somnething with value.
There is no guarantee of anything about anything, agreed. The long time diversification plan is a good one to be sure. But there does come a point where a betting man feels like its time to push his chips in.
Tucker will be up next year more likely than not. He was in High A at end of the year and dominated it. He should make AA this season. Once in AA, you are a call away at any moment. That said, I could see Astros rrading him for Quintana. I don't see Astros trading both Martes and Tucker for Quintana. I don't see CWS accepting less than those two plus a couple of lottery tickets.
Musgrove wasn't great today but the consistency is still there. He needs to be the 5... and Fiers can be the long man.
There is only one reason for Musgrove to not be in the rotation, and that is flexibility since he can be optioned, but I think he has done enough to force the issue. As much as the team probably wants to keep Fiers to give them a reliable 6th starter, I think they have to consider finding a trade partner. I think he is going to be a malcontent if he goes to the pen (keeping in mind that it will probably cost him significant $$$ in arbitration).
I agree! fiers this point in his career is inconsistent to be in the rotation. He would be great for 3-4 innings as a middle reliever or occasional starter because of rest & injury. Martes will he ready by June.
McCullers, Keuchel and Morton are all coming off injury marred years (Morton is basically glass man) and Musgrove is coming off a career high workload which was only 147 innings. For that matter Morton has only gone over 130 twice in his career, with 171 being his high mark. The sixth pitcher almost always works his way into the rotation fairly quickly one way or the other. If Mike Fiers stays healthy, and we don't trade for a big arm, I would be shocked if he doesn't make 25 starts this year. I certainly don't want any of the current 5 man rotation to go down or be ineffective, but looking at track records it's a virtual guarantee that many starts will be missed by somebody, likely multiple somebodies.
Agree with everything except 25 is a little high. Multiple guys will likely be hurt at same time. 5 guys will be healthy at same time. Guy will have trouble with soreness a day or two before next start, but Fiers just pitched two nights in a row or had a long outing. Also, Fiers will need to be 6 man all year for him to get close to that, but Astros are going to want Martes to get starts at some point. I'd put over/under around 17.5 starts for Fiers. Right now, but I'm hoping for the under out of lack of need. I hope for health and guys like Paulino and Martes can pass him on depth chart. Edit: I could see Fiers being way over or way under 17.5 starts without him getting hurt.
Exactly what I was thinking; Fiers is likely the 6th guy now but won't necessarily still be that guy as the year progresses because of the (hopefully) rapid development of some of our younger guys. In terms of dealing Fiers, he's an ideal deadline guy.
McCullers pitched 125 innings in 2015 and only 81 last yr. Will be interesting to see how they handle him this year (especially coming off an injury).
Our pitching is key to start the season. If McCuller and Keuchel can start strong we can avoid last season bad start.
